


Eternity

by izayoi_no_mikoto



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Bittersweet, Gen, Nonnies Made Me Do It, introspective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-06
Packaged: 2019-01-05 08:28:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 911
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12186501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/pseuds/izayoi_no_mikoto
Summary: Each game with Hikaru is a precious gift.





	Eternity

Hikaru sits in a _seiza_ in front of the go board, one hand dipped into his _goke_ , his brow furrowed.  His eyes waver, darting around one corner of the board.  At last he lifts his hand, a black stone pinched between two fingers, and places the stone down with a sharp _clack_.

Silently, Sai gestures with his fan, and Hikaru places a white stone accordingly.  It's a move designed to test, and Hikaru considers it at length before placing another black stone.  Sai gestures again; Hikaru places the stone, then adds his own.  White, black-– _atari_.  Sai connects, Hikaru counters.  White, black, white, black, and–- _ah_.

Sai pauses to study the stones, his mind leaping a dozen steps ahead.  He is capable of reading two dozen steps ahead, even three, but there are not two or three dozen moves to be had.  Hikaru has played well; in this corner, at least, white is dead.

Sai surrenders the corner and moves on to the next.  A tap of his fan, _keima_ to the white stone on the star.

Hikaru's lips twitch, but that's the only sign of his satisfaction.  In the next moment, his expression smooths out again, serious and single-minded, and he places Sai's stone before playing his own.  The game spirals out, one click of a stone at a time.

When Sai is sitting here, playing go with Hikaru, he forgets everything else.  He forgets that the world has greeted a new millenium, forgets that he is not alive, forgets that time passes at all.  There is nothing but the game, the stones on the board, and Hikaru, opponent and protégé, facing him.  Each game is its own microcosm of eternity, and Sai is just lucky enough to be a part of it.

Eventually, the game winds down.  They enter into _yose_ , and once Sai had solidified his territory as much as he can, he lowers his fan to his lap and passes.  Hikaru inspects the board for a moment, then places both hands in his lap, a silent signal.  They look up at each other, and then Hikaru nods and begins shifting stones, cleaning up the territory to be counted.

Once that's done, Hikaru stares at the board, perhaps tallying in his head, and then he lets loose an explosive sigh and flops back on his hands, his stiff expression melting away.  "Man," he says, "I really thought I might have had you there!"

Sai can't help but smile at that.   _It's still far too soon for you to defeat me, Hikaru_ , he thinks.  But aloud he says, "You did quite well."  And it's true:  Hikaru might not have won, but he held his own.  "You played this corner beautifully," he adds, indicating the corner in question with his fan.  A month ago, Hikaru would have lost that corner magnificently.

Hikaru clears the board and starts reconstructing the game, stone by stone, for them to analyze.  His memory is remarkable, his feel for the flow of the game even more so.  Sai doesn't have to say anything; Hikaru remembers the placement of each and every stone.

Hikaru pauses when he reaches the corner he won, one white stone in hand.  "You were testing me, weren't you?" he asks, glancing up at Sai.  "With this move."  He lays the stone down.

"And you passed with flying colors," Sai replies with a smile.

Hikaru pouts, but it doesn't last long.  He quickly lays out the rest of the stones, then sets the goke aside and says, “If you weren’t testing me, where would you have played?  Here?”

And that’s all it takes to set off a study session, discussing the possibilities in that corner and, later, analyzing other areas of the board.  Hikaru's play was uneven–-there were some clever moves and a boneheaded mistake or two, some gambles that panned out and some that didn't-–and there are many lessons to be drawn from this game.  Hikaru takes in all of it; he's a quick study, and he balances his competing urges well, defending his thought processes even as he acknowledges and studies his mistakes.

If games are a tiny sliver of eternity, then these post-game analyses only serve to remind Sai of how quickly time passes.  It feels like only yesterday that Hikaru couldn't hold a go stone properly, and yet today he's sitting here discussing complex go tactics.  Will the rest of their time together pass like this, more quickly than Sai could possibly imagine?  Will he one day look up from the go board to discover that Hikaru has become a hunched, wrinkled old man, with fading eyes and more titles to his name than he could ever dream of?

_So fast_ , Sai thinks wistfully as Hikaru clears the board. _You have grown so fast_.

This will end, one day.  One way or another, he and Hikaru will one day part ways, and no matter when that day comes, it will be too soon.  Sai knows this, and that's why he refuses to take a single day, a single game, a single _move_ for granted.

“Let's play again," Hikaru says, his eyes shining, and Sai can't help the way his heart trills.  He will play as many games of go as Hikaru will allow.  He will never not want to play go with Hikaru.  So he nods and claps his hands gleefully, and once more they begin to play, building their own miniature eternity stone by stone.

**Author's Note:**

> (Inspired by the prompt: 100 words of eternity)


End file.
